Which factor is the most important when choosing a printer?

Answer 1

Printing speed - the higher the ppm (page per minute) number - the faster it prints.

Print quality - the dpi (dots per inch) number tells you the quality of the printed page.

Ink cost - consider how much it costs to replace the ink cartridge(s)

Reliability - is it going to outlast its warranty !

Answer 2

There are many things to consider: print speed, how often you will be printing, average size of your print jobs, whether color printing is something you desire, whether you want other functions such as scanning or copying, which technology to use (laser/LED or inkjet), the size of printer you will most often wish to use for printing, whether you will be printing on standard paper or specialized paper such as photo paper, what size budget you have for your new printer investment, and much more.

The faster printing is done by laser printers, of course, but they also tend to have a higher initial expense than inkjets. So, if your funding for this purchase is limited, you may want to look at an inkjet or consider saving for a laser printer.

If you tend to print regularly, then either printer technology will be a good choice for you. However, if you print less frequently, you may wish to consider a laser printer. The reason being that inkjet cartridges tend to dry out fairly quickly once they are opened. While sealed in the package, they have a shelf life of about two years. Once opened, though, the sponges used in the modern inkjet cartridges tend to dry out in as little as two to three months in drier climates and about six months in areas with more ambient humidity. Considering that a single ink cartridge can be as much as $30 to $40, that is a terrible expense to have each time you want to print out a semiannual family newsletter, for example.

Toner cartridges (the cartridges used by laser printers) do not have that issue. They are often stamped with a date on the outside of the box but that is for the warranty that come with said cartridges, not their "expiration date." Toner is a dry powder, so it is not going to be affected by the desiccation effect of the air.

Also, while toner cartridges are more expensive than inkjet cartridges, they tend to last much longer. An average black inkjet cartridge has an expected print life of about 350 to 500 pages (based on the ISO standard of 10 percent of the page area being covered by ink) whereas toner cartridges have print life figures of anywhere from 1500 to 10,000 pages, depending on the model of printer. An example is the Samsung ML-3312ND printer that I use in my office for most of my printing. For about $60, I am able to put a cartridge into the printer that gives me 5000 pages of print. Compare that to $30 for a client's Canon inkjet printer that provides only about 450 pages of printing before needing another black cartridge. I would much rather than less than a penny a page for toner than nearly 7 cents a page for inkjet!

If your print jobs are small, say two or three pages at a time, then chances are that you are not going to be so concerned about the speed of the printing. However, if your jobs tend to be dozens or hundreds of pages at a time, then a print speed of 25 pages a minute for a laser printer compared to only about 8-10 pages a minute for the inkjet will definitely be noticed.

While it is possible to have color printing in either laser or inkjet technology, one can more easily find monochrome laser printers if one is not so concerned about color. Monochrome inkjet printers are very rare nowadays as "everyone" wants color printers. What's more, frequently when you find such a monochrome inkjet, it is about the same price as a monochrome laser. For the higher print resolution and greater print speed, I would suggest going with the laser in that situation.

Now, if you are settled that you want color, then you need to take a few other things into account. First, what type of color cartridges does the printer use? Second, how detailed do you want to get in your definition of color? Third, how often will you print in color? To answer the first question, inkjet cartridges typically handle this in one of two ways: either a "tri-color" cartridge or individual color cartridges. What is the difference? Well, that is simple: printers use three (or in the case of more detailed printers that are expected to be used for printing pictures on photo paper as a primary purpose, seven to ten) colors in addition to black to create the images: specifically magenta, yellow, and cyan. In the case of a tri-color cartridge, if you run out of one color of ink (say, you have no more cyan because you have printed news articles that had pictures of blue sky), then to get more of that color, you have to replace the entire cartridge, even though you may still have the majority of your magenta and yellow remaining. This leads to expensive waste, as you can see.

The other way to handle this (which is what all laser printers do) is to have individual cartridges for each of the colors. This way, when you run out of one particular color, just pull that cartridge and toss in another one. The other cartridges remain in service until they run out of their ink or toner. Much more precise and efficient: replace only what you need when you need it.

To address the second query about how detailed to get in regard to colors, this is more aimed at inkjet cartridges. There are some printers such as the Canon Pixma series that has several different ink cartridges in addition to the standard cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so as to make photo printing that much more vibrant. This is great if you are planning on doing a lot of photo printing but if you are printing out emails, for example, that are only text and no graphics to speak of, then such printers are of a waste due to the extra cartridges. Further, there are certain models of printers that will not print even basic black text if one (or more) of the ink cartridges is empty. If you are wanting to print out a school paper or a budget report before the meeting of the Board of Directors, then you don't want to be left hanging because you are out of light cyan.

The third query above (how often you will print in color) deals with the topic on which we touched previously: is it really worth it to have an inkjet that prints in color if the cartridges dry out between print jobs? Further, if you are going to be printing in color frequently, then you may want to consider a laser printer due to the faster printing speed. Most inkjets slow down to maybe one or two pages a minute for high-quality color printing or about four to five pages a minute for draft color printing. Laser printers, on the other hand, may slow down to about ten pages a minute for color but many are faster. If you have large color print jobs, you will spend considering less time twiddling your thumbs with a laser than you would an inkjet. Additionally, the inkjet printers of recent design tend to wait a few seconds between printed pages so as to give the ink on the previous page a chance to dry before starting to print the next page in an effort to minimize the chances of smudging when the new page lies down on top of the previous page. There is no such concern with laser printers.

In either printer technology, you can find printers that are just printers or those that are "multi-function" devices which also provide the services of scanning, copying, and sometimes faxing. If these are jobs that you find you wish to use on a regular basis, then a multi-function printer may be the ideal solution for you. If not, then look for something simpler so as to keep your level of investment down.

Depending on the quality of copying you need, you might want to consider a laser printer. While the scan of what is to be copied is about the same generally speaking between the two technologies, the reproduction of the scan by the printer will often be better with the laser printer due to its greater print resolution. (Inkjets tend to have a resolution of only about 300 pixels per inch both horizontally and vertically whereas lasers can be 600, 1200, or even 2400 pixels per inch in both dimensions, thus resulting in much finer detail than inkjets.)

As outbound faxing is the same between the technologies (since the printing technology is not concerned with outbound fax calls, of course), there is little to be discussed here. However, in regard to inbound, the quality of the printout is only as good as what is received from the other fax machine. Therefore, if you are unsure what quality you will receive, a laser printer might help you decipher any transmissions littered with interference (such as from an international fax) due to the potential for more precise placement of the received data when printed on the page.

To address the issue of the size of paper on which you will most often be printing, this is something to consider since laser printers tend to use only standard form sizes such as A4, Letter, Legal, etc. So, if one is going to use such forms, then either inkjet or laser will work. However, if you intend to print banners from long spools of paper or you intend to use wide format papers (papers measuring more than 8.5 inches in width), then the only economical option is an inkjet, specifically a type called a wide-format inkjet printer. These tend to be much more costly since they are considered a business-class printer rather than something you would find in someone's home but, as always, you get what you pay for. They tend to be more reliable since it is not likely that one is going to want to replace a $2000 wide-format printer every three years or so.

While I could continue to go on with many other things to consider, I will mention only one more at this point before wrapping up: power. You need to consider what amount of available power that you have on the branch circuit where the printer will be located because if it is inadequate, you will find that the circuit breaker will trip if you try to print with your laser printer, thus making everything else on that branch circuit unhappy and maybe ticking off the family or the roomates. So, before anything else, take a look at what is on that circuit. The easiest way to tell this is to power up everything that could possibly be on that circuit (and be aware that a circuit may be used in several different rooms because the electrician who put it together was trying to "balance" the expected load between the various circuits of the house) and then trip the breaker manually and see what shuts off. A perfect example of this in my office is that on a single circuit, I have the lights and ceiling fans for the reception area, workshop, office, break room, front foyer, and restroom. Additionally, that circuit services the outlets in reception, workshop, office, and hall. To say the least, when I installed the two laser printers (the aforementioned Samsung monochrome and an as-yet-unmentioned Samsung color) along with the various diagnostic stations, administrative computers, network hardware, and more, I had to call in an electrician to drop in two new 20-amp circuits dedicated just to the technology in then workshop and one more 20-amp into the office so as to get everything powered.

So, from your simple question of what you should consider, you can see that there is much more to ponder before making a decision. If you wish further advice, assistance on narrowing down models, or have other questions, though, feel free to drop me a line. Further, if you are in or near the northeast Kansas area and would like my assistance professionally, let me know and I will be glad to work with you and find you a printer that will meet your needs.

Answer 3

well it depens wha tkind of printer you are looking for!!!

Answer 4

writw he four criteria you should consider when evaluting printers

Answer 5

tristin Peterson likes cheese